Trans theoretical approaches to memory and relatedness: Potentials and suggestions at the intersections of transgender studies and queer studies

Abstract

This article focuses on the question of, Can we study memory and its curious itineraries as spaces of kin-making? By focusing on the stories of trans mothers and trans daughters, this research aims to show how women with trans experiences play with the gendered and sexualized links between body, family, time, and memory. The article is organized into two main sections. The first part focuses on everyday practices and experiences of trans motherhoods and trans daughterhoods to illustrate how memory formation and memory transmission are crucial components in the construction of kin-ties and individual identity. Second, I turn my attention to the literature on transcultural and transgenerational memories, highlighting how scholars working across the fields of memory, kinship, and trans and queer studies enrich the scope of trans*. Engaging with trans* approaches to memory and relatedness, expands and plays with legal, political, and social experiences of spatial and temporal confinement while inviting us to attentively see lived experiences that unapologetically experiment with the links between memory and relatedness.